Leila Faithfull

Leila Faithfull (née Reynolds) (1896-1994) was a British artist, who throughout her career worked in a variety of media and who is best known for the artworks she produced during the Second World War, depicting events in Britain.

Leila Faithfull
Born
Leila Reynolds

1896 (1896)
Woolton, Liverpool
Died1994 (aged 97–98)
Bristol, England
NationalityBritish
Education
Known forPainting
Spouse(s)
  • George Faithfull m.1917-his death
  • Cuthbert Worsley m.1943

Biography

Faithfull was born in Woolton,[1] a suburb of Liverpool where her father, Sir James Reynolds, had business interests. She married George Faithfull in 1917. and after his death she married, in 1943, the writer and critic Cuthbert Worsley.[2]

Evacuees Growing Cabbages (Art.IWM ART.LD 428) (1940)

Faithfull studied at the Slade School of Art throughout 1923 and 1924, before going to Paris to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1933 she exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais in Paris.[1] At the start of World War Two, Faithfull applied to work for the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC. Although not given a full-time commission by WAAC, she was given facilities and permits to work. She used these to produce paintings depicting evacuee children and, later, scenes of American servicemen playing baseball in a London park, and these pieces were purchased by WAAC.[3][4] During the war, Faithfull also worked for a time as a surgical artist at the new plastic surgery unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead under Sir Archibald McIndoe.[2] At the end of the war, Faithfull produced a triptych depicting the crowds gathered around Buckingham Palace, celebrating on VE-Day.[5][3][6]

After the war, Faithfull built a reputation as a portrait painter and exhibited widely with works shown at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists and the New English Art Club.[7] Both Kenneth Clark and Sir Edward Marsh acquired examples of her work for their private collections.[2] In her later years she begin working in metal, creating figures of dancers and horses. Faithfull died in 1994 at St. Angelia's Convent in Bristol, where she had lived for several years.[2]

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References
  1. Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 5 Dyck-Gemignani. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2 7000 3075 3.
  2. David Buckman (1998). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0 95326 095 X.
  3. Catherine Speck (2014). Beyond the Battlefield, Women Artists of Two World Wars. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978 178023 374 1.
  4. Merion Harries; Susie Harries (1983). The War Artists, British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century. Michael Joseph, The Imperial War Museum & the Tate Gallery. ISBN 0 7181 2314 X.
  5. Art from the Second World War. Imperial War Museum. 2007. ISBN 978-1-904897-66-8.
  6. Imperial War Museum. "Correspondence with artists, Mrs L Faithfull". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  7. Grant M. Waters. Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950 Volume II. Eastbourne Fine Art.
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